lextasy23
Well-Known Member
So, I decided to make an electric brew panel. We're buying a house this year, and instead of having to wait, I figured I'd slowly hoard the stuff now, build my panel, and hit the ground running.
For around a year, I have been collecting parts and this past weekend I finally put the panel together.
I bought the enclosure for $40 on Craigslist. It came with a cover, but I wanted to have it waterjet cut, and I was quoted between $150-$200. Then, I'd be ordering plastic tags to use as labels - those were another $50. Completely by accident, I found a company online (bigbluesaw.com) who laser cuts and engraves, and I decided to have the entire panel cut out of acrylic. Not exactly up to code - arc flash is and will always be a concern - but I am confident with my design and wiring.
Anyways, I wish I had started a build thread, but it's never too late.
Here's where I'm at now:
The schematic:
The backplate and components:
The signal tower:
(going to be green when nothing is on or amber when pumps and/or elements are on, and flashing red when a PID/timer alarm is triggered)
Cover design:
Finished product:
As soon as I saw the guy at bigbluesaw could make it out of acrylic, I KNEW i wanted LED side lighting. The LED strips were short money on eBay out of China. I even found ones that were 3mm wide - just about exactly the same as my .177 acrylic.
Here's a pic I took lighting it up with just my phone:
SO, I still have to...
For around a year, I have been collecting parts and this past weekend I finally put the panel together.
I bought the enclosure for $40 on Craigslist. It came with a cover, but I wanted to have it waterjet cut, and I was quoted between $150-$200. Then, I'd be ordering plastic tags to use as labels - those were another $50. Completely by accident, I found a company online (bigbluesaw.com) who laser cuts and engraves, and I decided to have the entire panel cut out of acrylic. Not exactly up to code - arc flash is and will always be a concern - but I am confident with my design and wiring.
Anyways, I wish I had started a build thread, but it's never too late.
Here's where I'm at now:
The schematic:
The backplate and components:
The signal tower:
(going to be green when nothing is on or amber when pumps and/or elements are on, and flashing red when a PID/timer alarm is triggered)
Cover design:
Finished product:
As soon as I saw the guy at bigbluesaw could make it out of acrylic, I KNEW i wanted LED side lighting. The LED strips were short money on eBay out of China. I even found ones that were 3mm wide - just about exactly the same as my .177 acrylic.
Here's a pic I took lighting it up with just my phone:
SO, I still have to...
- Add the safe-start circuit
- Build the frame/border (to hide the LED strip)
- hardware into the house (when we get a house lol)
- configure the PIDs (anyone with Auber experience?)
